Srebrenica Massacre / United Nations / Genocide Memorials

Srebrenica Memorial to Point Finger at UN
By Aids Cerkez-Robinson
Associated Press dispatch on MSNBC.com, July 10, 2010
"Phillip Ruch's monument to Srebrenica is a huge jumble of worn shoes, more than 16,000 of them, each pair representing a victim of Europe's worst massacre since World War II. Seen from afar it will spell out UN in gigantic letters. The 'Pillar of Shame' is to be raised in the hills above Srebrenica with a controversial goal: singling out the United Nations and international leaders as the ones most responsible for failing to prevent the mass killings. Ahead of the 15th anniversary Sunday of the massacre, Ruch said he is looking forward to the debate the monument is almost certain to generate when it goes up at some point next year. The German activist describes his project as a 'warning for all future UN employees never again just to stand by when genocide unfolds' -- alluding to the failure of UN peacekeepers to protect the Srebrenica victims during the Bosnian war. On July 11, 1995, more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and youths were slaughtered by Bosnian Serb troops in an enclave supposedly protected by UN peacekeepers. The United Nations had declared Serb-besieged Srebrenica, some 90 kilometers (60 miles) northeast of Sarajevo, a protected area for civilians. But the few hundred Dutch Blue Helmets on the ground were left short of credible weaponry or a clear mandate to protect the town. [...]"